1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the field of network communication, and more particularly, to interface scalability when increasing the number of router linecards within a single chassis.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the number of clients or networks having destination IP addresses increases for an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or a growing large company, network complexity and, thus, the demand for more router interfaces also scale accordingly. Routing systems containing several slots for connecting router linecards have been designed in an effort to meet the demand for routers with a large number of interfaces, both physical and logical. However, scalability in terms of the number of interfaces and associated operations supported by a single router remains a problem. For example, conventional routing systems that typically use a single operating system do not scale well because of the increased number of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests impingement on the routing system with an increased number of network connections.
Accordingly, techniques for successfully scaling the number of interfaces within a routing system are needed.
Overview
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to network routing systems for addressing interface scalability.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a network routing system. The routing system generally includes a chassis, a plurality of router linecards disposed in the chassis, and first and second virtual interfaces for routing between two or more of the plurality of router linecards, wherein each of the router linecards maintains a forwarding information base (FIB) for directing incoming packets to a local interface or to the first and second virtual interfaces to be received by other router linecards in the plurality.
Another embodiment of the present invention is a method. The method generally includes receiving a packet in a first router linecard of a plurality of router linecards disposed in a chassis, forwarding the packet from the first router linecard to a first or a second virtual interface for routing between two or more of the plurality of router linecards based on one or more selection criteria, and receiving the packet from the first or the second virtual interface in a second router linecard of the plurality of router linecards.
Yet another embodiment of the present invention is a method. The method generally includes configuring an FIB of a first router linecard of a plurality of router linecards disposed in a chassis to forward a packet to a first virtual interface for routing between two or more of the plurality of router linecards if the packet is to be forwarded to a second router linecard in the plurality and if the packet meets one or more selection criteria; and configuring the FIB of the first router linecard to forward the packet to a second virtual interface for routing between the two or more of the plurality of router linecards if the packet is to be forwarded to the second router linecard and if the packet does not meet the one or more selection criteria.